A top aide to President Donald Trump said she misspoke when she cited a 2011 "massacre" in Bowling Green that never happened.

Kellyanne Conway used it as a reason why the administration's temporary restrictions on immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations is necessary.

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During an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews that aired Thursday, Conway defended Trump's executive order on immigration last week by saying that former President Barack Obama instituted a similar policy for Iraqi refugees in 2011.

"President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized, and they were the masterminds between the Bowling Green massacre. Most people don't know that because it didn't get covered," Conway said.

On Friday morning, Conway tweeted that she meant to say “Bowling Green terrorists.”

She was referring to a tightening of security checks for entry into the U.S. after the May 2011 federal terrorism arrests of two men in Bowling Green on charges of plotting to send weapons and money to al-Qaida operatives waging an insurgency in their native Iraq. WLKY covered the arrests of the two men, their guilty pleas and sentencing.

Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi were admitted to the U.S. as Iraqi refugees in 2009 and resettled in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The two later admitted to using improvised explosive devices against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and attempted to send weapons and money to Al-Qaeda in Iraq to kill U.S. soldiers while living in Kentucky.

The men told investigators that they believed their activities in Kentucky were supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq. Neither man was charged with plotting attacks within the United States.

The two were very closely monitored in the months leading up to their arrests and a confidential source working with the FBI met with Alwan. The weapons handled by the two men were not active. None of the weapons or money the men intended for Al Qaeda in Iraq ever made it out of the United States. It was all controlled by law enforcement as part of the undercover investigation.

Alwan pleaded guilty in December 2011 to a 23-count federal indictment on charges he conspired to kill U.S. nationals abroad, conspired to use a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. nationals abroad, distributed information on the manufacture and use of IEDs attempted to provide material support to terrorists and to Al-Qaeda in Iraq and conspiring to transfer, possess and export Stinger missiles. Alwan was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison and a life term of supervised release.

Hammadi pleaded guilty to 12 counts including attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to Al Qaeda in Iraq, conspiring to transfer, possess and export Stinger missiles and making a false statement in an immigration application. He was sentenced to life in a federal prison. In December, a federal judge denied a request to vacate his sentence after Hammadi claimed his original attorney's representation was ineffective.

A formal ban wasn't announced by the Obama administration, though there was a dramatic decline in the number of Iraqis allowed to move the U.S. in 2011. Officials at the time cited an enhanced security clearance process for delaying Iraqi visa applications.